Example: Vertigo (3)

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This scene from Vertigo is a good example for the importance of shot/coutershot in classical Hollywood cinema. It is one of the stock schemata of Hollywood film editing, which the filmmaker has ready to hand in order to represent any two figures, groups, or objects within the same place. This schema can be fitted to many situations, whatever the differences in figure placement, camera height, lighting, or focus; whether the figures are facing one another, or not, etc. Because of the tradition behind the schema, the viewer in turn expects to see the shot/countershot figure, especially if the first shot of the combination appears. (from: Bordwell 1985).

In this scene, note how seamlessly the shot/countershot figure is woven into the continuity editing technique and how it is here used to draw in the audience to this important episode in the developing romance.

	1	2
	3a	3b
	4	5a
	5b	6a
	6b	6c
	7a	7b
	8	9
	10a	uups . . .
	10b	11
	12a	12b
	13a	13b
	14	15
	16	17
	18	19
	20	21
	22	23
	24a	24b
	24c	24d
	25a	25b
	26	27
	28a	28b
	29	30a
	30b	31a
	31b	31c
	32a	32b
	32c	32d
	32e	32f
	32g	32h
	32i	32j

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